The present invention relates generally to ceiling systems having acoustical panels and more particularly to coatings for acoustic scrims of flat panel sound radiators and acoustical panels and a method for applying these coatings.
As the service sector of the economy grows, more and more workers find themselves in offices rather than in manufacturing facilities. The need for flexible, reconfigurable space has resulted in open plan workspaces, large rooms with reduced height, moveable partitions, and suspended ceiling systems. Workstation density also is increasing, with more workers occupying a given physical space. Additionally, speakerphones, conferencing technologies, and multimedia computers with large sound reflecting screens and voice input tend to increase the noise level of the workplace.
In response to increased noise within the workplace, suspended ceilings having acoustical ceiling panels have been developed to absorb and abate extraneous noise within a confined space. The modular design of such panels allows for ease of installation and ease in office space reconfiguration. Building planners often specify modular acoustical panels as a standard system within their designs. Acoustical panels can both enhance the work environment by providing acoustic sound absorption and attenuation and by providing a pleasant monolithic visual appearance. Thus, there has been an increased emphasis on specifying suspended ceiling systems with high acoustic absorptions and pleasant visual appearances.
Building planners prefer to utilize ceiling systems that are substantially monolithic in structure and design. Such ceiling systems provide a pleasant visual appearance to persons viewing the ceiling from below. Loudspeakers often are required in office spaces where ceilings are formed of acoustical panels in a suspended ceiling grid. Loudspeakers are used to provide sound in a workspace such as paging messages, music, and background masking sounds. The background masking sounds reduce the effect of unwanted noise from infrastructure systems such as ventilation systems and which mask speech noise allowing for greater speech privacy. Unfortunately, many loudspeaker systems do not integrate visually into the ceiling system and, as a result, interrupt the desired monolithic appearance of the ceiling.
By way of example, many speaker systems, when installed, protrude below the plane of the acoustical panels, thus interrupting the planar surface of ceiling. Some speaker systems can be installed by cutting a hole in a acoustical panel and installing a speaker with a round perforated grill within the opening. Such a speaker grill, while effective, nevertheless interrupts the monolithic appearance of the ceiling and is considered unsightly by some.
More recently, flat panel sound radiators are being utilized in place of these traditional loudspeakers. The flat panel radiators are more visually pleasing than traditional loudspeakers because they are co-extensive with the plane of the ceiling and have the size and look of ceiling panels. However, existing flat panel sound radiators generally are detectable because the coloring and texture of the facing does not match precisely the surrounding ceiling tiles. Thus, these flat panel radiators still are considered by some to present an unacceptable appearance.
Attempts have been made to develop coatings to be applied to the facings of flat panel sound radiators so as to render the facings similar in appearance and texture to surrounding acoustical panels. However, it has proven difficult to formulate a coating and a process for its application which provides the facing material with the proper appearance and texture while continuing to provide the desired acoustic transparency. These requirements heretofore have seemed to be somewhat mutually exclusive conditions.